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tv   Power Lunch  CNBC  December 18, 2012 1:00pm-2:00pm EST

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years. adt is a derivative on the housing play. hit a new high this morning, backed off about $1.50. a great entry point. >> you've been a big believe in housing. you still like housing stocks. >> i still do. >> steve weiss. >> i'm going to give you two, okay. halcon. stocks doing very, very well. joe and i talked about this. i bought some yesterday, added to it this morning for a trade. i think joe bought it also. >> wow. thank you. that disit for us. don't forget to join more fast at 5:00. join me on cnbc. "power lunch" starts now. >> the second half of the trading day starts now. >> fiscal cliff negotiations picking up speed as house speaker boehner unveils his back-up plan. the white house says no thanks. we are going to look at the
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fiscal cliffrences between the two. private equity firm selling after last week's shooting in connecticut. should investors, rather than the government, take the lead in attempting to influence gun policy? herb greenberg will be out with his list of the worst ceos of the year. in this hour he will reveal number three. my partner sue herera on the floor of the new york stock exchange. hi, sue. >> hi, ty. it's a strong day with a triple digit advance. we have 13 days until america goes off the fiscal cliff. events moving faster in washington. house speaking boehner meeting with party members, moving to plan b. that deals with bush era tax cuts. the white house rejected that. investors like whatever progress we're seeing. s&p 500 at a two-month high. s&p up 1 1/3 -- 1.1 on s&p, dow jones industrial average up 114
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points, almost a full% enand nasdaq up 1 1/3. the latest on how those negotiations are progressing. >> over the last 24 hours or so we've had a flurry of proposals, counter proposals, responses, responses to responses. as it lies right now, basically all those responses have been rejected by the other side. at the top of 2:00, we should have a new round because we're going to expect to hear from the senate democratic and republican leaders coming out and talking to cameras. we might get more reaction then. but earlier today speaker boehner came out and unveiled the big one, a two-track plan that would have the house vote on what he's calling plan b. take a listen to his rational for going that route. >> at this point having a back-up plan to make sure that as few american taxpayers are
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affected by this increase as possible, moving down that path is the right course of action for us. >> what boehner is proposing is extending bush tax cuts for everybody that makes less than $1 million a year. they say that will take the threat of tax increases off the table for most americans. but the white house and democrats up here on capitol hill have already rejected that option, guys. we're sort of at a little stalemate for this hour, maybe the next. >> there is some talking going on evidently. let's take you deeper inside the new proposals on the table, show you the differences. our senior economics reporter steve liesman has the fiscal clifferences. >> we're only going to do revenue. we're not going to do spending. come back tomorrow and hopefully get more spending. let's just do revenue. it's enough. >> clifferences. >> the first thing here, let's look at tax increases.
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what we understand with the new proposal of obama to raise tacks on those making $400,000 and higher, that would raise $600 billion in revenue. we believe the revenue side from the gop is $460 billion. just a warning on the gop. not getting exact numbers from here i ran them by a high-level gop source, he says they are not far off. the gop says the difference as 235, they see another $95 billion in revenue obama administration would raise. let's go on and take a look at the other key area, which is deductions. 540 for gop and $500 billion for democrats is all over 10 years, a minor difference right there. just so you know 46 to 50, could be 50/50, summer in that neighborhood. moving on, the estate tax, $100 billion, going back to the 2009
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levels. the gop we believe is not for any increases in the estate taxes. $1.2 trillion in revenue democrats say they would raise. gop says they would raise a trillion dollars in revenue, the difference of $200 billion, depending what you do with that $95 billion. >> sounds like the differences or clifferences are narrowing on revenue. we'll take spending tomorrow. sounds like they are narrowing there. i want to come over here. this the one where the big money lies. this is from what, the increase in the tax rates on -- >> two things in there. >> who really? >> increase in 400,000 versus a million. also, whether or not the gop includes in that tax increases for capital gains and dividends. we know the obama administration said overnight they wanted to go from 15 to 20%. we believe that's in there. i need to gunfire you one other piece. you saw amin report on boehner's
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tax only deal. treasury secretary did a call with top executives. >> i want to see. >> you're doing fine. >> i'm a big guy. >> lacks spending agreement, doesn't deal with automatic cuts, fails to resolve the debt ceiling issue and increases potential for rating downgrade. when the administration wants to lobby, they go to the ceos. that's been recurrent throughout this. ceos we understand are pushing back saying as you pointed out, $200 billion apart, make a deal. make a deal. if the consequences are the economy going over the cliff, why don't you make a deal. >> we'll see you on the spending side. >> i have to work overnight on that. >> sue, down to you. >> the market fees as though they are making a deal at this point. that's why we have a triple digit advance, up 114 points on the dow jones industrial average. bob pisani with some trading action. the market is aching for a deal.
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any time we get any sense they are making not even a deal, just they are talking. >> plan b by boehner is a very modest proposal as steve pointed out. the market doesn't care. it's almost as if boehner and obama are in the way and they have to get out of the way. the market deal, even if there isn't a deal, two-month highs on the s&p. look at that, highs of the day, even if you want to be pessimistic, there's not a lot necessarily here that's been going on today. s&p up 14% for the year, folks. we've got a number of new sectors, new highs, financials at new highs, s&p sectors, consumer discretionary group, retailers and home builders also at new highs. look at these home builders, up 4%. an average increase this year. banks and home builders are the two big winners this year. >> kenny, come on in. an independent trader down here at the nyse. mr. geithner in the mix.
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the administration uses him very effectively to talk to ceos and business leaders. he's saying what's payable would increase the chances of a ratings downgrade. does this market care about a ratings downgrade. >> i think it will, but it doesn't feel like it cares today. all it's done yesterday and today, it is anxious. you said it, they are aching for a deal. what's going to happen, the market is ahead of itself. there is no deal. there's a lot of talk. yes, we're closer. that's good. i think the market as usual, the pendulum swing too far to the left. when the deal comes out you may see the market pull back. there's a lot of short covering. there's an explosion in the volume. listen, some of it is real. there's not an explosion in the volume. you have to see volume increase. >> the legitimate rally. >> i think plan b is not very substantive. we talked about this a couple weeks ago. to have real legs here, the market, it's got to be a deal and a substantive deal.
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just doing plan b, i'm not sure the market would be particularly going forward with that. >> what's why i think it's ahead of itself. as usual, like we saw in europe, there's talk, then they get disappointed. >> they need butterscotch peanut clusters. send it to washington. i it's kenny's recipe of the day. >> they are so great. >> maybe they will talk more. you never know. sue to the bond market, five-year notes up for action. rick santelli. >> hi, tyler, another spongy auction. the high stroke of 1:00 eastern was .765 on the bid side. what were the results of this auction, .769. it tailed off a bit. the 10 auction average, 2.87. this was deficient at 2.72. the lightest since july.
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indirect well below 42 auction average. here is where it's interesting. new trend, central banks, large institutions on direct bidding, 30.4, 11% is a 10 auction average. that's the best since sep '04, 77 basis points. rick, all yours. >> let's bring in jeff, cnbc contributor. you're a bond guy at the cme. is this a bond bubble and are we coming out of it? >> we talked a couple weeks ago on "power lunch" how we're poised to see the long end of the curve. we had confirmation when ben bernanke said they were going to focus the purchase on the belly of the curve. that's what we call it in the pits. four to six year. right now we certainly have seen a big move in the ten-year. looking at the 30 year, should see a rise in the 30 year. at the end of the day people
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comfortable out of washington, the bond, long end of the curve, people are selling. >> thanks so much. we'll be back with you in a little bit. sue. >> bob pisani showed us the home builder stocks. one of the reason they are moving, there was good news for the economy. home builder sentiment moving to strongest level since april '06. national association of home builders rose to 47 from a revised 45 in november. keep in mind despite eight months of gains, the confidence index still remains below that key reading of 50. but it has been a very strong year for the home builders. here is how they are trading. it's worth another look. toll brothers up, d.r. horton up 2%, better than 3% for pulte, better than 4 for beazer home and lennar up 2% as well. >> mounting pressure from investors cerberus says it will.
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can they be more effective in influencing gun policy. that and more when we return. i always wait until the last minute. can i still ship a gift in time for christmas? yeah, sure you can. great. where's your gift? uh... whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. ship fedex express by december 22nd for christmas delivery.
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following pressure from one of its major investors private equity firm cerberus management said it will immediately begin selling its investment in freedom group in light of last week's shootings in connecticut.
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fellow gunmakers smith & wesson down on the news. sturm ruger down better than 8%. mary thompson has more. >> breaking a nour day silence, sturm says they are shocked. the private equity firm said it can take action another way, selling freedom group and returning money to investors. this will avoid being drawn into the national debate more properly pursued by those with the charter to do so. they want to sell to a single brother and finding that lone buyer could prove difficult. the firm has yet to hire a banker to manage the sale. they began building in 2006 through a series of acquisitions. the first being bushmaster in 2006. them remmington, dpms and others. the end result, freedom is the
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largest gun manufacturer, second largest ammunitions maker and the maker of the assault rifle used friday, the bushmaster. they made an application to go public in 2009, with drawing in 2011. cerberus's's ceo stephen feinberg has a personal link to the town where the children were shot to death. his father lives in a retirement community there. comments on the sale have not been returned. >> so should big institutions like private equity firms, pensions step up pressure on weapons makers or stop funding them all together. "fortune" magazine senior editor first broke the money behind the newtown massacre story. dan, let's talk a little bit about this. how do you react to the idea cerberus is now, in light of this, going to sell the company
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they so meticulously put together. it's not as though people didn't know that they were in the weapons business here all along. now they are saying we want to be out of it because we don't want to be part of the debate or they think the heat on them is going to become too great. >> i think it's the heat not part of the debate. they owned freedom group when freedom group had paid lobbyists in d.c. working on gun issues. that's not directly cerberus but clearly that makes them part of the policy debate. this is partially a pressure thing. cerberus gets a lot of money from big institutions, teachers pensions, et cetera. they can't directly say to cerberus you guys have to sell. they can say, look, if you don't do something about this, we might not be there the next time you go to raise a fund. >> you point out in one of your articles from last week that the retirement system there invested $500 million into a $7.5 billion
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cerberus fund despite the fact several charter documents would apparently preclude them from investing in companies that pose these kinds of risks to society and other things. talk to me a little about that. >> calsters really has made a point, on their website you can see something they identify as 21 risk factors. these are things that are supposed to guide calipers investment officers. when they invested, they didn't own freedom group. they put in money and cerberus did the deal. certain limited partners in the funds proactively say, look, we're only investing in your fund if you promise not to do this sort of deal, this sort of deal. sometimes it's alcohol, sometimes firearms, sometimes pornography. or if you do one of these deals, we don't want our money used for that and write it into the
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agreement. in this case they didn't follow their recommendations or have the conversation. >> it does speak, dan, does it not, to the power that institutional investors can have in this type of situation. we talked yesterday on "power lunch" how this horrific event in connecticut seems to be the inflection point in the debate about gun control or assault weapons. talk to me about the power the institutional investor can yield in this particular argument. >> first to your last point, cerberus in the statement referred to this as a watershed event. i think they are right about that, for example. the exact weapon used in aurora made by bushmaster and no conversation time of cerberus selling. in terms of institutional pressure they can say to a firm like cerberus, next time you come to raise a fund, we're probably not going to be there. you saw this a couple years ago with a firm called premiera,
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they wanted to close a factory in ohio, last u.s. manufacturing company, some pensions put pressure on them and were able to change their mind. >> can the institutional investors big ones, nif them out there, can they put political pressure on congress to move this along or not. >> they can. they don't have a huge amount of money to do such things. i'll put it this way. compared to the amount of money private industry can put, there's no contest. >> dan from "fortune" magazine. thank you very much. sue, thank you. >> next half hour, ty, i'll look at the impact of the sandy hook tragedy had on gun retailers, then we'll talk with a leading mental health expert on whether mental health is being lost in the debate. back in 2:00. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about low-cost investing.
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herb greenberg knows. he has his list. he's checked it twice. he's found out who is naughty and nice. >> this is my list. >> your list. >> so we've gone through a few before. so let's take a look at my pick for number three. this is someone again who people think should have been number one. ron johnson of jcpenney. this is a company that had a tremendous number of blunders right out of the gate with just overall optimistic sales and earnings guides. i have no idea why anyone in a turnaround company would have sales or earnings guides. last quarter 26% decline in comp store sales, really had people wondering if this could ever be turned around. the one defense i must mention. i must mention this to you, tyler. this is a company that's in a turnaround. when a company is in a turnaround, i think you must give the ceo a chance. in this case, he came out and he said from the start, it's going to take two or three years or a
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number of years. >> he's only been there 13 months. herb, i know you're a tough trader. he seems like such a nice man. >> he seems like a really nice man. he's engaging. nice and execution are two separate things. he is really trying to recreate a major retailer. no one has really done it quite like that. will he be able to do it? he could end up as a best ceo down the road. >> nothing would please you more. >> nothing would, i really respect great managers. >> to see someone turn it around. you love that. >> i love it. i don't always see it. >> no, but that would be it. specifically in terms of his business, taken away coupons and sales which was part of jcp's dna. seems like same-store sales suggest he's driven customers away. >> he has right now. when you get the store within store concept. >> his other big move. >> again, will it work?
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we've heard from some suppliers saying it appears to be working. there's so few you really don't know. by the way -- >> so the second worst and first worst will be revealed. >> on "street signs." the second worst had me anguishing. the first worst deserves it. >> clear conscious there. >> "street signs," 2:00 hour. >> thanks so much. sue. >> can't wait. all right. we're going to take a look at the markets when we come back, then we'll talk the fiscal cliff and how the fiscal cliff might affect you, a small business owner. ♪ [ engine revs ] ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] the mercedes-benz winter event is back, with the perfect vehicle that's just right for you, no matter which list you're on. [ santa ] ho, ho, ho, ho!
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with a 106 point move to the upside in the dow jones industrial average see how gold prices are faring. they are closing and sharon epperson tracking the action at the nymex. >> reporter: gold moving in the opposite direction, a major selloff in the gold market with gold prices down, more than $20. a close that could be around 1670 an ounce and may drop toward the 200 day moving
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average, 1667. several factors pressuring prices. many sides talking about both sides. that having an impact on gold. moreover, what happened in china with them canceling orders for soybeans highlights the fact there may be cooling off going on in china. that exacerbated a selloff in the agriculture commodities and that translated to a selloff in gold and silver as well. what's interesting to note are some reports out from firms talking about what happened in commodities overall. so far this year we have seen losses overall for commodities sector. gold, though, has fared pretty well up 7% year-to-date. back to you, sue. >> thank you so much, sharon. let's bring in jeff kilberg. i know a lot of people are longer term quite bullish on gold. why are we see this pressure taking it apolo the 1700 mark. >> well, sue, i think we saw a knee-jerk reaction initially when boehner came out with plan b. that technically got the ball
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rolling to the downside. keep in mind one week away from christmas. these holiday markets you can really get pushed around. traders have to be aware on thin volumes. came down to the november 5th low, new low on the close, 1670. right now i think they are stripping out the inflation in gold and really focused on the fiscal cliff. we are going to come to a deal in washington. right now i still like being a buyer of gold. may back to 1651, where we came out before two months ago. right now continue volatility and choppy trading. >> you're still a bull. >> i am. >> thank you, jeff. to the trading action with bob pisani on the nyse floor triple digit advance sticking so far. >> two-month gains in the s&p and dow jones industrial average. the key point, not like we've advanced so much on negotiations today. last night we did. the market anticipates a deal. take a look at dow industrials and s&p 500.
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two-month highs. 100 point move. now as sue mentioned, not off of the highs, not much off of the highs. take a look at major sectors moving today. some lagging groups. oil service lagging. that's moving to the upside. steel stocks lagging. that's pretty strong. cyclical a new high, transports, for example, as well as strengths of global industrial names like united technologies. finally want to take a look at gold stocks, too, talking about gold here. not only have gold stocks lagged the market, they have lagged gold. it's been an ugly year for gold stocks. the home builders, another update on home builders. i want to point out towards the year, average home builders up 100%. i want to keep pointing out, a spectacular year. >> right. but does that mean if you have those kinds of gains in those portfolios, do you take money off the table in a significant
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way benefactor end of the year. >> most of these stocks are fully valued on historic basis where they would normally trade. you'd have to argue about a significant expansion of the multiple, 2013. there's some evidence they will do better. when you get most of them having order increases of 20, 30, in some cases 40%, that's pushing it right now. you can argue both ways whether they have got a lot further to go. certainly orders should go up. >> however, if you've got a gain of 300% in some of these stocks, remember the old commodity adan adage, only pigs get slaughtered. to seema. >> best selling sector of the day, if people feel better about fiscal cliff, tech has more. we've seen a resurgence in the last couple of days. a lot has to do with apple. take a look at shares of apple
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up better than 2%. we had that bullish note. that providing or lifting shares around apple and the apple story. the outperformer in the semiconductor state, share repurchase program for $500 million. the street seems to like that. that's why the stock is up better than 3%. we've got our eye on oracle, expecting $0.61 per share. i was speaking to an analyst. this earnings report will perhaps shed light on what we can expect in 2013 when it comes to enterprise tech spending, a mainly factor of growth for tech giants. biotech space, the best performing stock on the nasdaq biotech index up better than 3%. back over to you, tyler. >> seema, thank you very much. thirteen days and counting to the fiscal cliff. there is optimism that washington may be moving closer to a deal. what does an agreement mean potentially for smaller businesses. joining us frank sorrentino from
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north jersey community bank. good to have you back. how has the impending fiscal cliff affected your business? >> it's interesting. every client meeting i have starts off with what do you think about the fiscal cliff and what is that going to mean to me? should i wait on this decision going forth with my business to purchase something, leverage something, will my tax structure look different. maybe i should wait. >> postpone commitment, postpone decision making. if we do go over the cliff, what would that mean to your business? >> i think over the last number of years, this country has worked so hard to bring confidence back to the marketplace. i think this is the one event that would destroy that confidence that we've built up. if we destroy confidence, i think we're going to have a whole lot of small business owners who will postpone decisions, step on the break, slow things down. this whole concept of let's do
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no harm to the economy will be shattered. >> nobody likes to see taxes going up. second thing, it's okay if my taxes don't go up but yours do. do small business owners come to you and express their dismay, which reflects speaker boehner's contention and that of the gop that small business owners will be disproportionately hit, as if tax rates go up on 250 and above cohort, which is what is in the law right now, but obviously subject to the changing discussion. >> first thing i would say is nobody wants their taxes to go up. that's a universal statement. however, the small business owner is much more interested in what's the economic environment going to look like and can i produce a profit. will iish able to increase my business, sales, revenues and profits. if i have to pay a little more in taxes in a better environment, i'd rather do that than have a much lower tax rate.
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>> you would prefer certainty. you want certainty. enough of these, well, we'll set it this way until a year from now and come back and revisit it. that's no way to run an airline. >> all comes back to confident. if i feel confident about my business, i feel confident about what i'm going to do, confident about my ability to increase my sales and revenue -- >> how big is the concern among your clientele, your small business clients, about the impending obama care health care costs? >> again, another issue that arises in our conversations, what do you think about health care. but again, same sort of logic. if business is going to be going well, if i'm going to be able to hire, if i can expand my business and there is certainty about what the program looks like, i don't think everyone really understands what that program is all about today and how it will affect them in the future, then i believe they are okay with it. to the extent that they are not, it's an issue. >> let me walk out a little bit
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here on a politically sensitive topic and that is the lapsing government guarantees of the transaction accounts, noninterest bearing accounts. it was a major contentious issue, small bankers wanted it to continue. larger bankers were fine letting it lapse. where are you and is it important to you? >> i think it was a mistake to let it lapse. i do wish people would be careful about saying it was a government funded program. it was funded by fdic, totally funded by fees paid by member banks. banks like us pay for that type of coverage. there was knopf exposure to the taxpayer for that program. that leveled the playing field for us and larger institutions which are still considered too big to fail. >> it created a moral hazard. there was a government guarantee standing behind the possibility that those accounts in your bank or another bank might lose them. >> tyler, the largest 19 or 20
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banks in this country have an implicit guarantee because they have been noted as too big to fail. so having a program that smaller banks can buy into to provide unlimited insurance for transaction accounts, noninterest bearing accounts only. accounts people put their payroll in and run their operations from. >> senate stopped it. >> i think it was a mistake. >> do you expect some of those clients will pull money out if you have such money. >> we don't think that's going to happen but in certain parts of the country and in certain cases it might happen and it will hurt those communities. >> good to see you. frank says hi, sue. >> hi right back at you, frank. have a great holiday. >> let's go to mary thompson for a market flash. >> hey, tyler, one of the worst performers in the s&p 500, the worst performer in s&p 500, electronics arts, video gamemaker. the reason the company cutting its outlook for fiscal 2013 earnings after reviewing the company's lineup for the remainder of the year. they say there's an increase
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risk when earnings for the company in 2013. still a perform rating because it expects 2014 to be a strong year in part because of the arrival of its new battlefield title. down 13%. back to you, sue. >> thank you very much. the pressure is mounting on major gun retailers in light of the shootings in connecticut. courtney reagan how retailers are responding. "power lunch" back in two minutes' time. i always wait until the last minute.
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coming up on "street signs," the top of this hour, herb just gave you guys, the "power lunch" viewers, a look at his worst ceos of 2012. we're going to debate whether or not microsoft deserves to make the final cut on that list. do you own a house? do you want to own a house? will 2013 make it a better investment? we'll check out the housing market going forward. a shocking stat how many hours our children and teens
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spend every single week on tvs, computers, video games and the roll violent games may have on violence in the community. lots of things coming up, top of the hour, folks, back to you on "power lunch." >> see you at 2:00. thank you very much, mandy. in the wake of the sandy hook tragedy, dick's sporting goods pulling semiautomatic rifles from its shelves and walmart saying it hasn't changed its gun inventory policy at all. courtney reagan looking at gun retailers in light of that tragedy. >> good morning, sue. as americans process the tragedy, one retailer is reacting. dick's sporting goods released this statement. out of respect for the victims and their families during this time of national mourning we have removed all guns from sale and from display in our store near it newtown and suspended the sale of modern sporting rifle in all of our stores chainwide. walmart has not made any changes. cab ella pro shop, asked if they
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were making changes to their firemen inventory but we have not received a response from those. >> if some legislation does come out of this, it will not harm legitimate retailers. if there were fewer gun shows and more new guns sold, it might actually help dealers selling full price guns such as walmart or dick's. >> can't remember a time retailers carried out a knee jerk response to a tragedy by pulling guns off shelves. the dialogue on how to prevent at massacre is more gun control laws to mental health. now responsible for 10% of homicides in the united states, we're wondering about the cost of treating mental illness and overall impact. impact from former health and
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human services deputy secretary where he oversaw the federal budget of $700 billion for medicare, medicaid, drug safety and mental health services. he is now the senior fellow at the hudson institute. welcome, dr. troy. nice to have you here. >> thanks for having me, sue. >> talk to me about how much money is put to work for mental health services in the united states. we know the percentage in terms of the people responsible for homicides in the united states as it pertains to mental health. how much money is spent on mental health services percentage weiss? >> we spend about $113 billion on memorial health services, about 5 or 6% of our overall health care spent. that's kind of in line with other countries. overall our spending is much higher as a percentage. on mental health we're about in line with other countries, $113 billion. that does not include the secondary costs, lost
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productivity at work or incarceration cost. when it comes to lost productivity at work, about $150 billion in cost from untreated mental illness and $44 billion of that is handled by businesses unfortunately. >> when you think about the horrific situation in sandy hook, and the fact the shooter, the individual who committed those atrocious acts apparently did have some mental instabilities, we wonder whether or not you think mental health spending should be increased, by what percent, do you think that changes the conversation in washington and who ultimately ends up paying for this? >> it's clear that we do have to have a conversation about mental health spending and how we do it. i'm not sure the answer is necessarily more money, throwing money at the problem. i think we need to be a little wiser about how we do it. there are estimates that say 40% of americans have mental illness. that doesn't mean 40% of the
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people ar danger like we saw in this recent incubator. you've got about 5 to 10%, 5 to 9% of people, overall americans, people with serious mental health conditions. those are the people to worry about. i would like to see more targeted spending on people with serious mental health situations. i don't think we have enough of a quarterback situation. nobody is in charge. states have been slashing spending on mental health, $1.8 billion since the beginning of the recession. you need somebody responsible and having a metrics for what is going to work and what is going to be used for health spending. >> i have a couple of perspectives, one would be mental health is the stepchild of the health insurance business. seems like providing want to pay the least and make it the most difficult to get mental health covered. let's put that aside. in my lifetime, dr. troy, the two biggest changes with respect to mentally ill i've seen is,
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one, they are not institutionalized anymore. more of the mentally unstable are on the streets. that's number one. number two, legally you cannot force, compel many of those individuals to stay on their treatment or to be treated. how do you respond to that? >> yeah, i would add one more to your list, which is the use of pharmaceutical products to treat this in contrast to what you're talking about with institutionalization. those are the big trends. it's an important issue with civil libertarian implications. we did deinstitutionalize. we used to spend about 42% of our mental health spending was on institutionalizing. now it's only about 19%. so there's been a real drop in that. there's the whole "one flew over the cuckoo's nest" phenomenon. people think you shouldn't put them in institutions. we should deinstitutionalize except for the dangerously mental ill, those dangerous to
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them or others. >> dr. troy, thank you very much for your prospectus today. we appreciate it. s.e.c. settled charges with street incorporate and executives. they say executives entered into sham transactions with counter policies. the website filed financial reports throughout 2008 that inflated its results. thestreet.com slofd the improprieties in 2010, executives agreed to pay financial penalties to settle the case and are barred from accepting future officer or director positions. the street is not pay any penalties. cnbc.com has a content sharing agreement with thestreet, which was, of course, co-founded by our own jim cramer. sue. >> what do you think about this? bah humbug, mcdonald's open franchisees to open up on christmas, this as it strives for higher sales.
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scrooge or good business sense? part of our power rundown coming up.
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it is power rundown time. joining us for a corporate edition of the rundown cnbc's john kerry and bob pisani. i want to say that. apple's request to ban sales of samsung's smart phones in the u.s. stock of apple down 25% over the last three months. john, is apple losing its mojo. >> it hasn't had a dramatic innovation. it's trying to keep other people from catching up with it by suing it. that's not really a good business strategy. i do think it's lost some of the apple invents the new great thing every few years. it hasn't. >> the judge says failed to prove infringing on the products enough to ban it. that's what they want to do, ban it. they got a billion dollar fine out of the guys. isn't that enough. haven't we heard enough of the thing? the judge himself said he's fed up with the case. let's settle and move on. >> apple is trying to protect their territory.
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>> they should concentrate on innovation and not trying to stop others from catching up. >> isn't that what apple says, concentrate on innovation. instagram facing backlash. starting january 16th, the photo sharing right has a right to use your pictures in ads without paying you or notifying you. can instagram really do this? you do have to sign off on -- >> they are not going to do this. they are going to repeal this policy very quickly way before we get to january. users are in open rebellion. people are threatening to take down their instagram accounts. they don't want instagram to fall apart and it will. >> legally you can do that. it's not inalienable right. can you sign away your image. legally they can do it? is it creepy, unethical and sleazy, yes. i'm with you, let's hope they remove this fast. >> nobody wants to see their picture on an ad they were never even told about. >> during the election, all the campaign ads out there, they
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used journalists and news clips and we found some of our own personalities. >> suddenly finding they are representing apple or qualcomm, any of these companies. wait a minute. people get paid to that. >> you hope it's apple or qualcomm. could be something completely different. therein lies the problem. bah humbug or hamburger. mcdonald's asking franchisees to open their restaurant on christmas to beef up their sales. scrooge or a good business move? bob, you go first this time? >> look, it's very tough of the company has a right to ask stores to stay open, franchisees to stay open. they need to increase their numbers. they were good last year. >> open thanksgiving. >> up 2%, helped a little bit. people who want to stay with their family should not be forced to do so. subtle pressure on franchisees to do it, put pressure on
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franchisees to coin. i'm not sure mcdonald's needs that image. >> i think it's terrible. people who object to it should refuse to enter mcdonald's, not just on christmas day but the entire week around christmas. send them the message we think christmas is important and we're not going to let them force employees to do this. >> john carney, they have tarnished the golden arches a bit in your opinion. thanks, guys. appreciate it. in the next hour herb greenberg will reveal the worst ceo of the year. that's coming up on st. petersburg at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. thanks, guys. back at 2:00. ♪ ♪ [ engine revs ] ♪ [ male announcer ] oh what fun it is to ride. get the mercedes-benz on your wish list at the winter event going on now through december 31st. [ santa ] ho, ho, ho!
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[ male announcer ] yes, you could business pro. yes, you could. go national. go like a pro. we thought this was worth a mention. target is stepping forward. they are donating $10,000 worth of target gift cards to the sandy hook elementary school. as you know, those children will not be returning to that school in the near future. maybe never. they are going to be going to school in monroe, new york. they are donating those gift cards so administrators can use those to restock that school with supplies because it's not being used right now. nice thing for target to do. let's take a look at the markets right now. dow jones industrial average

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